


Study Break

by starsnspace



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spiderman - Fandom
Genre: IronDad and SpiderSon, but close enough to feel cathartic lol, kinda self indulgent, this is lowkey a summary of my first semester of college (obviously tweaked to Peter), woooo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-20
Updated: 2019-01-20
Packaged: 2019-10-13 04:57:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17481617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starsnspace/pseuds/starsnspace
Summary: Peter Parker has had a rough first semester of college.  Tony is trying to be a good mentor/father-figure, and gives him a call.orTony spills tea on himself and Peter grows





	Study Break

It was going on 3:05 a.m. when Peter couldn’t focus anymore. Well, if he was being honest with himself, he hadn’t been focused since 2:00, but he was making a valiant effort to continue studying and working on his homework even after he knew he should go to bed. But he just. Couldn’t.

It’s not that Peter didn’t want to sleep, on the contrary he desperately wanted to get some rest. But his roommate Chris was there and dear God he wanted to avoid Chris as much as humanly possible. They had started off on friendly terms, for being random roommates, but the relationship had quickly soured as soon as Peter overheard Chris gossiping about Peter’s lack of popularity and how much he couldn’t stand the teen because of his goody-two-shoes personality. 

It truly wouldn’t have mattered if Chris had said it to Peter’s face, he knew that he was a bit of an outcast from high school (even though he was immensely full of confidence now that he and MJ were dating, Ned was still his best friend, and he had May and Tony backing him up on anything and everything), and he knew that he wasn’t always down to drink or smoke or Juul or whatever Chris wanted to do that night (because, dude, we’re here to learn and get degrees not party every night), but Chris had been complaining behind Peter’s back, and that was honestly the worst part.

Peter could handle criticism, he’d done it his whole life. But he would not tolerate being treated like a fake friend, and suddenly Peter had no one.

Sure, he had his classes with his study groups, and he had a few clubs that he was interested in like robotics and chemistry club, but none of those really fostered strong friendships and Peter was lonely. So he threw himself into school. He couldn’t fling himself off buildings anymore, the suit had been taken away for the school year because no one needed to know that Spider-Man had school in Boston, so Peter didn’t have much.

It was incredibly, deeply lonely. 

He missed Dum-E. The stupid, messy robot that destroyed everything that it got near was a constant presence in the lab when he and Tony would be working on projects or hanging out, and even when it was just Peter, the robot was nice to chat to and bounce ideas off of.

And Karen. Karen, his favorite, his wonderful, beautiful, co-pilot in the suit, he hadn’t talked to her in months. It’s the little things Peter missed most. He could text Tony and call May every day, but he couldn’t see the small comforts.

And not that it bothered him (just kidding, it did), MJ and Ned seemed to be having the times of their lives. MJ had joined the university newspaper and was already fast-tracking her way to editor-in-chief, and Ned had found some friends in the computer science department that enjoyed Star Wars almost as much as Peter did. They were truly thriving. And it hurt a bit to compare his life to theirs, their fun and wonderful lives that seemed too good to be true, at least from their tales of adventure and college-related insanity.

So Peter was up at 3:00 a.m. wallowing in self-pity, unable to sleep. All I want is to sleep, just a little, I’m so exhausted, Peter thought to himself as he heaved his dense textbook into his bag and shoved his pens into their pouch. Wearily rising to his feet, Peter began the trek to his dorm. A loud bzzz filled the room suddenly, and peter sluggishly looked to his phone and noticed its silent vibration.

Incoming call from T-Stark. Peter answered on the second ring.

“Hello? Tony, its 3 in the morning, what’s wrong why are you calling this early?” Peter asked, confusion etched across his features.

“Nothing’s wrong over here, May’s fine, Pep’s good, I’m good. I actually called to talk about, well, to talk about you,” Tony replied, ending on a note that Peter couldn’t decipher.

“Me? Why? Also, how’d you know I was awake?”

“Tracker in your phone put you in the library, bud, keep up you’re supposed to be the next Tony Stark,” he chuckled. “But I did want to talk to you about something important. Are you…God I don’t know how to do this, are you doing okay?”

“Wait, what? Yeah, I’m fine, college is good, I’m having a great time,” Peter responded.

“Wonderful, now let’s try that again with the truth. Are you happy, Peter?”

Tony sounded truly concerned. And not just concerned like he was faking it, he was calling at 3 in the morning, and asking him about his feelings. Peter was not used to this. Not in a bad way, per say, but this was big. A new step in their relationship, one could say. Peter could not mess this up.

“I’m…struggling, I guess. The whole thing with Chris really messed me up and I just need some time I think, to get back into things,” Peter staed.

“God, kid, if I could I would blacklist him from the field, but you don’t want that. Did I ever tell you about my first semester at MIT? This is not gonna be a pretty story. I was a bit of a partier back in high school, and if anything it got worse in college when my mother wasn’t around to keep me in line. I went out every night and drank until I threw up and then I barely made it to class hungover, never sober. I was living the “cool, college life”. Except I wasn’t I was just like you. All the people I hung around with liked me for my name, and every single time I passed out I would wake up to hearing someone talking shit about me, just to turn around the next day and fawn over me. It was not fun.”

“Tony, I appreciate the honesty, but that is nothing like my life right now. All I do is study and focus on classes, I don’t hang out with friends and I don’t go out to eat with people because I don’t have people to go out with!” Peter growled into the phone.

“True, true, shitty story, I’m sorry, kid. It’s just, I can relate to the loneliness. In a different way, for sure, but I do sort of know what you’re going through, Pete. You’re a great kid, too great for some people. All they’ll ever do is step on you and abuse you because they can and because no one’s there to stop them. And that’s not okay. But I just…it gets better, is what I’m trying to say. Keep doing what you’re doing. Join the clubs and do the things and reach out to new people. Not everyone is like Chris who’ll stab you in the back just to seem cooler, he won’t get anywhere in life with that attitude. You will.”

Peter smiled into his phone. Sure, it was a sloppy attempt at comfort, but this was a man who was known to shove his emotions off to the side and ignore them. But he was breaking the cycle and Peter was so grateful that someone could relate, at least a little bit, to his situation. 

“Thanks, Tony. I understand,” Peter suddenly let loose a massive yawn, startling them both. 

“And that’s my cue to leave, kid. Go get some sleep and we’ll talk soon, maybe make this a conference call with Aunt Hottie, huh?”

“Hey! Stop calling her that!” Peter laughed, “but you’re right, goodnight, Tony.”

Tony said his goodbyes, and Peter began his walk from the library. He was still exhausted, but less like he was holding the world up by his two shoulders alone, but more like he had just sprinted through the city and was pleasantly tired. He would be okay. Peter knew it.

 

Epilogue

The start of Peter’s sophomore year of college was a blur. He had met with his friends for bubble tea at the local shop and was excited to start his classes, especially organic chemistry. He turned to his roommate, Neal, and began excitedly talking about their shared classes and the clubs they were joining. This year was going to be his year, Peter thought, and everything was perfect.

**Author's Note:**

> hi all! this is super self indulgent, like actually a lot. so, this is roughly based on my own experiences as a freshman in college, adjusting to living with a random person and all that. in my own defense, im a shy person, and becoming friends with my roommate who was so different from me from a morality standpoint was probably not the brightest idea, but a girl has fantasies of being bffs with her college roomie and that didnt happen. for those who care, its all good now and im honestly really happy with where I am in college. sure, theres a few things I wish I was brave enough or confident enough to do, but im getting better. speaking of, im gonna draft an email rn to send out tomorrow to help further that! as always thank you for reading, and for those of you who'd like to know more about my tragic (lol) life, message me in the comments!! or dm me idk if a03 does that haha, anyway thanks!! :)


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